Q1. Who can post stories on the blog?
A1. Anyone can write for the blog. You must register and use your full name when posting comments or blog posts.
Q2. Are we restricted on what we can write about?
A2. Submissions must be related to cartooning, whether that be print, web, animation, etc. I will be fact checking stories to make sure nothing is published that would be considered libel or in bad taste.
Q3. If I submit a story, when will it show up?
A3. All stories will be approved before being published. It assures a certain level of quality is being maintained (see above question/answer). I will review all submissions in the morning between 6-8 a.m. and around noon MST. If you think you’ve got a breaking story, email/text/direct-twitter me and I’ll review/approve it regardless of the schedule.
Q4. Does my post have to be news?
A4. Not necessarily. TDC visitors come for two reasons: 1. to find out what’s happening in the industry (news) and 2. to read what others are saying about the news. Some of the most discussed topics were not based on a news event, but were interesting to a great number of people.
Q5. Will you still be posting the news?
A5. Yes. It will take time to get the community fully self sufficient, but due to other projects that I will be taking on in the near future, my blogging will be limited to a couple of news stories a day.
Q6. What’s in it for me?
A6. Love. Leading the discussion of an art form that we all love. I’ve added features to the blog to give contributors more visibility. Your picture (gravatar) shows up with each post/comment, you’re listed on the homepage as a contributor, you’ll have a page listing all your stories, your web address and an RSS feed for just your postings. In theory, you could take that feed and display it on your web site or blog.
Q7. How do I get those nifty icons that go next to my name in the comments or blog posts?
A7. They’re called Gravatars. You can create yours over on Gravatar.com. When you login and comment or post stories on TDC with the same email address that is used over on gravatar.com, it will automatically show up here.
Q8. !#$!#!$#@$! You’re ruining The Daily Cartoonist as we know it!
A8. Sorry. I’ve known for about a year that TDC was maturing beyond what I could provide single-handedly. The newspaper cartoonists and their fans have a great community here and I’ve always wanted to expand the audience and create that type of community for every form of cartooning, but have lack the time to adequately cover those topics. Having others contribute allows more opportunity for those neglected art forms to be covered.
Q9. Who reads The Daily Cartoonist?
A9. The TDC audience is currently made up of cartoonists (of all stripes), die hard fans of the comics, newspaper editors or journalists, syndicate employees. A certain number of the general public come through due to a Google search as they look for information on why a strip was dropped, repeated, etc.
In the future, my goal is to reach out and bring in a larger number of cartoonists from other areas of the field (magazines, webcomics, illustrators, greeting cards, etc.).